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Alumnus will provide White House with National Thanksgiving Turkey

By Kari VanDerVeen
November 26, 2008

Even if the two turkeys brought to the White House for this year's National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation aren't named Sven and Ole, there will be at least one Ole in the spotlight at the event.

Turkey
As the National Turkey Federation Chairman, St. Olaf alumnus Paul Hill '67 has the honor of presenting President George W. Bush with two toms he and his family raised at their farm in Ellsworth, Iowa. Hill and his family operate Circle Hill Farms, Ltd., and he is also the chairman of the board of West Liberty Foods, a farmer-owned company he helped found that has become the 12th-largest turkey processor in the United States.

Hill will present the 2008 National Thanksgiving Turkey and its alternate to the president at the annual Thanksgiving turkey presentation on Wednesday, Nov. 26, in the White House's Rose Garden. The two turkeys will be given names chosen by the public in a voting contest (last year's turkeys were given the names May and Flower). Presidents traditionally have granted the National Thanksgiving Turkey a "pardon," so these turkeys will not end up on the dinner table.

HillPaul67
Hill
"After we present the turkey to the president, we'll have a police escort to the airport, where we'll board a flight called 'Turkey One' that will take us to Disneyland," Hill says.

The turkey will serve as the grand marshal of Disney's Thanksgiving Day Parade at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. After the parade, guests will be able to see the bird on display.

The road to the White House
Hill chose the turkeys that will receive national fame from a flock of 4,500 toms that arrived at his farm from southern Minnesota when they were just one day old. He initially chose 13 turkeys from that group and raised them in a separate barn from the rest of the flock. He'll choose the turkeys to take to the White House from that group. The selected turkeys received extra attention so that they will be as tame as possible when set before the president.

"My son and grandsons have worked with them for an hour to two and a half hours every day since we've chosen them," Hill says. "We're trying to tame them to the point where we can set them on a table and they won't fly off."

The birds will be 20 weeks old and weigh about 45 pounds each when they are driven to Washington, D.C., for the national ceremony. They'll have plenty of familiar faces surrounding them in the nation's capitol. Hill's wife Mary, his two sons, daughter, grandchildren, sisters and all of their spouses -- nearly two dozen family members in all -- are making the trip to the White House and will be in the Rose Garden to see the turkeys presented to the president. "We're very excited about this opportunity for our family," Hill says.

Hill's father began raising turkeys in 1948, making the family farm's 60th anniversary a special time for this national honor. Hill graduated from St. Olaf with a degree in economics, and he considered becoming a minister or lawyer before finally deciding to return to his family's farm. "I'm probably the only person who graduated from St. Olaf at that time who went back to the family farm. But fortunately, my father was extremely progressive and I could see an exceptional opportunity down the road on the family farm," he says. "St. Olaf has prepared me well for all that I've done in this business in the last 10-15 years."

ReaganTurkey
President Ronald Reagan pardons the 1983 National Thanksgiving Turkey at a White House ceremony.
West Liberty Foods, which has annual sales of $750 million, processes more than 217 million pounds of turkey meat each year and provides 80 percent of the meat for Subway restaurants. The company has been honored with DuPont's coveted food quality award. In addition to raising 700,000 turkeys each year, Circle Hill Farms also plants 1,600 acres of corn and runs an operation that sells 20,000 tons of organic compost to other farmers.

The National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation
This year marks the 61st anniversary of the National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation. The White House website notes that "although live Thanksgiving turkeys have been presented intermittently to presidents since the Lincoln administration, the current ceremony dates to 1947, when the first National Thanksgiving Turkey was presented to President Harry Truman."

The site goes on to note that "the presentation at times has brushed against broader history. The November 1963 event was one of President John F. Kennedy's last in the Rose Garden. President George H.W. Bush conducted the 1990 ceremony just before leaving for Thanksgiving with the troops in the Persian Gulf region. And in 1996 President Bill Clinton returned from an Asian summit and went directly to the ceremony."

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.